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Wallgreens smart fridges are watching you - and learning!

The latest in retail and loyalty, March 2019

Wallgreens' new smart fridges learn from watching you!

Pharmacy chain Walgreens is going to pilot a new line of “smart coolers” that are equipped with cameras that will transform how you choose your next beverage into raw data that marketers can use to sell you more products.

The new integrated cameras will scan a shopper’s face and collect information on data points like age and gender but shoppers won’t be individually identified. Similar initiatives in Norway and The Netherlands faced shoppers’ comments on the data proof angle of this kind of test and were stopped.

Carrefour China implements innovative order picking system

Carrefour China achieved its first order with a new innovative store picking system, with a 182m-long conveyor belt in place to cater for the growing online and o2o business. The implementation of a conveyor belt system helps save manual efforts required to transport goods within the store, as well as make sorting and delivery more efficient. The freshness of products can be secured to a greater extent. By using this technology,

Carrefour can accept up to 3,000 orders per store per day.

PICNIC launches own meal box, without subscription

Netherlands-based e-grocer Picnic has launched ‘Presto’, a meal box that, according to Michiel Muller, founder of the online supermarket, is the first meal box that can be ordered the night before, is home-delivered free the next day and requires no subscription.

Five different meals are offered each week, which change on a weekly basis. There are meal variants for two people and for a family of four.

SPAR International launches new supermarket concept in Spain

Spar Gran Canarias launched a new store concept dubbed ‘Spar-Puerto Rico Market.’ Operating from an area of more than 2,000sqm - one of SPAR’s largest stores - the new concept enhances the traditional supermarket experience with new thematic sections for prepared meals and a cafeteria. Furthermore, a ‘Spar Natural’ store area offers more than 6,000 SKUs of organic/natural food, hygiene, and cosmetics products. Thematic experience sections are: ‘Cava de Quesos’ (cheese), ‘Cava de Vinos’ (wines) with a great novelty that the customer can also taste 16 types of wine instantly thanks to modern wine glass dispensers. There is also a ‘Cava de Cervezas’ (beers) and of course the ‘Cava de Jamon’ (typical Spanish ham).

Japan’s Aeon offers video interpreters for foreign shoppers

Japanese retailer Aeon has introduced a video interpreter service at roughly 550 of its domestic stores to serve the country’s rising number of foreign shoppers. The interpretation service uses video chat to let a store clerk and a customer communicate in 10 languages including English, Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish. A store clerk calls up an interpreter using a store-provided smartphone or tablet.

Freshii announces grocery collaboration with Walmart Canada

Healthier on-the-go just got easier! Freshii is on a mission to change the way the world eats, and in an exciting new grocery store collaboration, Freshii has curated a large selection of better-for-you salads, wraps, lunch kits, snacks, and cold-pressed juices to be featured in many select Walmart Canada locations. Customers will have a quick one-stop shop for groceries, household staples, and their Freshii superfood favourites.

Russian competitor to Aldi and Lidl closes German branch after 5 days

The first subsidiary of the Russian supermarket discounter Mere in Germany has already been forced to close the doors - temporarily - after five days. According to Mere, the first few days were so busy at the newly opened branch in Leipzig that suppliers could not cope with the demand. Mere wants to compete with Aldi and Lidl, especially in East Germany, for customers with a smaller wallet. But both German chains made their stores more luxurious in the last decade. Mere, a daughter of the Siberian Torgservis is a no-frills store. Mere wants to open a hundred branches in Germany.

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